If you aren’t yet at Elon Musk’s level of being nervous about artificial intelligence, this peek into the future might get you there.

On today’s show, Glenn read an email from a friend in the tech industry theorizing what AI of the future will be able to do. AI that can mimic voices and recognize people not only by their faces but also by their body movements is already in the works. What’s coming next?

“Imagine AI … being able to identify a perfect stacked, ranked list of every person in the country who works against whatever your agenda is,” Glenn said. “Then imagine that AI being able to go online and post things on the internet that sound exactly like you.”

GLENN: So I had a friend write to me, just this morning. And he said, Glenn, I was listening to your show yesterday. And he said — let me see if I have this. I’m paraphrasing here. You talk about AI killing us all.

I know that’s a go-to line a lot of tech people take with AI. But the thing I want to get across to you, is that’s not the worst thing AI could do.

STU: Wait.

GLENN: Yeah, okay.

STU: You’re talking about artificial intelligence could kill us all, and that he says not the worse that it could do?

GLENN: This is a guy who is in Silicon Valley, very high levels. And has — he writes to me from time to time. And he’ll say, hey, you’ve got this wrong, or you should pay attention to this. Or, hey, have you seen what people are working on over here? So he’ll write to me from time to time. I — think — I’m not sure if I’ve ever met him. Maybe I met him once, years ago. But I’m not sure if I’ve ever met him. And he’s written me for years. Just for years.

And I really respect him. He has a very sharp, sharp mind. And he’s never asked for a meeting before.

And he wrote me last week, and he said, AI is starting to take a very scary turn. And I — I need to meet with you.

And I said, will you come on the air and talk to me?

And he’s like, God, no. No. But you need to know. And I need to make you aware of what is happening with AI.

So he says, you know, AI killing us all may not be the worse thing.

Well, what could possibly be worse? Stu, listen to this.

Imagine AI, current AI, not some AI in the future, being able to identify a perfect stacked, ranked list of every person in the country who works against whatever your agenda is from top to bottom.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: Let me say that again. Imagine AI, current AI, not some AI in the future, being able to identify a perfect stacked, ranked list of every person in the country who works against whatever your agenda is from top to bottom.

Don’t give this on camera, please. Then imagine that AI being able to go online and being able to post things on the internet that sound exactly like you.

STU: Wow.

GLENN: He hasn’t even started. Then imagine AI being able to go online and post things on the internet that sound exactly like you, writing in your voice perfectly. Imagine AI can call people on the phone and sound exactly like you, can appear in videos, surveillance cameras, photos, looking exactly like you. Walking exactly like you.

Imagine an AI that is able to see everything that you do and then determine what the best way is to frame you for something you didn’t do. Then build the evidence against you perfectly to the point that you could never defend yourself in court. Imagine an AI that can orchestrate a pile of real blackmail evidence against you, from things that you actually have done in your life, then tell the owner how to present it to you, to make you completely snap, based on your current medical and mental state.

Imagine an AI that makes it so you have no idea what is real and what is fake.

Glenn, this is the kind of thing that I’m talking about. And I can show you actual evidence of this happening now. You need to see it.

Yeah, AI can kill me. Don’t do me any favors. The worst concept is what AI can do in the hands of the wrong person or agency or political party or nation or nation state. You’ve talked in the past about not being able to believe your eyes. We’re there. That future is now.

Holy mother.

STU: Wow.

GLENN: You do not want my friends.

STU: No.

GLENN: You don’t want my friends. I don’t sleep well.

STU: Most people just email me to congratulate me about the Eagles win last night.

GLENN: I know. I know.

STU: And that, I think, ties into the situation with — with Russia. And the media has done such a job on trying to make this all about Donald Trump. The idea that a foreign power with almost unlimited resources could harvest and harness that type of technology, to utilize it against somebody here or their enemies, is frightening.

GLENN: Have you heard what Vladimir Putin says about AI? Have you heard his latest statement in the last month?

STU: I don’t think so.

GLENN: In the last month or so, he came out and he said, this is the final war. This is it. Whoever masters AI first will dominate and control everything on earth.

STU: Wow.

GLENN: And so he’s pouring all of the resources of Russia into the development of AI. Because, I would imagine, he knows the same thing my friend does: The entire world changes.

This goes back, Stu, to a conversation you and I had in ’97, ’96, when I said to you, imagine a time when you’re not going to be able to believe your own eyes. Because they’ll be able to re-create you and put you in photographs and put you in videos. And it’s not you. But you won’t be able to believe your own eyes.

STU: Yeah. We’ve been talking about the Harvey Weinstein thing a lot this week. Imagine that sort of technology applied to this, to someone who didn’t do it.

GLENN: Well, and imagine — we know that AI — we know that a year or 18 months ago, we heard AI imitate the voice of Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and I think Hillary Clinton.

STU: Hillary Clinton, yeah.

GLENN: You could tell it was a computer. But it was really close.

STU: Just — it wasn’t a consumer-facing press. Was it a university that was doing it?

GLENN: I can’t remember.

STU: But it was the first attempt, right? In ten years, I mean, imagine how far they’ll be —

GLENN: Imagine how far it is now.

STU: And it wasn’t taking words from Barack Obama. It was actually creating from scratch his voice and then typing in whatever you wanted him to say.

GLENN: Correct. And, again, you could tell it was a computer. But it was the first attempt. Imagine that tape of Harvey Weinstein that the — the NYPD had, that undercover tape. You could create — especially somebody like me, who has been on television. You have all my movements. You have everything.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: You could create anything. Anything.

STU: And this is one of the downsides of our society turning into 310 million individual broadcasters. Because now everybody has had videos posted of them, of almost everything they’ve done. We all host our own little shows on social media and feed into this. And really, if this technology develops as your friend says it does, and he’s at a high level of Silicon Valley.

GLENN: You know who he is.

STU: Yeah, and if that develops that way, unimpeded, you’re going to be able to make anyone say anything. And you’re not going to be able to defend yourself.

GLENN: And what’s frightening is the damage that is done — imagine, you want to start World War III. You can start it. You can absolutely start it.

You want to start Civil War, show Donald Trump meeting with Vladimir Putin and — and show him doing all kinds of wicked plans against the United States. You would have a civil war. Neither of them were in the room, that’s not true. What’s frightening is not what comes in ten years, but how perfected this technology may be at this point, where before everybody has it in their hands. Once everybody has it in their hands — but until everybody recognizes that this stuff is true and exists, it’s just then a conspiracy theory. And how many people will be wronged or jailed or killed? How many wars will be started? How many things will collapse because it was used and people don’t know that we have that technology? Holy cow.

STU: I for one believe AI is responsible for turning the freaking frogs gay. I don’t know if that’s true. But that’s what I believe.

GLENN: No, I don’t think that is true.

STU: Oh, no, that was chemicals in the water. But who knows. All I know is the frogs, they’re gay. I’ll say that.